웹툰

It started off as one of those far-fetched ideas. “Hey, it’d be cool to write a script for a Korean drama someday. Hey, what if I made the plot for my book into a webtoon?”

This isn’t a plot from one of my books, but sure – it could be remade into a K-drama someday. In the wise words of that kid from Angels in the Outfield, “It could happen!” Who knows? Why limit myself with fears of failure?

The title: ㄹtalk (aka Real Talk. Somewhere in the distance, my friends are all cringing at my never-ending obsession with puns)

The plot: A young Korean scholar from the late 1800s accidentally time-travels to modern America and masquerades as an exchange student. With the help of an American college student majoring in Korean Studies, he navigates college life in the U.S. and learns “real English” until he can figure out how to get back to his own time and country.

I won’t pretend to be the world’s best artist. I’m better with writing words than drawing faces, and sketching noses is my arch enemy. It’s been a lot of trial-and-error trying to find an art style that won’t drive my innate perfectionist mad. And I’m not sure where this webtoon will take me, or even quite sure where I’ll take this webtoon.

But that’s the fun of it.

It’s an open and uncertain adventure, and I hope you’ll join me here. Better yet, if you have a Naver account and like my work, please do rate the webtoon and leave comments. It means a lot.

Like this:

한경찰 작가님이 began a new webtoon, 꿈꾸는소녀, 소년 at the end of October and has maintained both Spirit Fingers and her new webtoon to the awe of her many Korean readers. Usually the quality of one drops due to the workload, but 스핑 is going strong while her new webtoon is also a top contender, ranking fifth among series that are updated on Tuesdays.

As always, all I want to do is rave about her artwork. This webtoon is beautiful (although I’ll always be biased toward Spirit Fingers) and it seems to be building a plot just as complex and interesting as 스핑. Currently it has only seven chapters out, so be warned if you’re the type that needs to wait until a series is finished to marathon through it; for now you’ll have to wait patiently for the update each Tuesday. But if you’re already following 스핑, it’s a great mid-week read to tide you over until you can find out what happened to that dear, amazing 우연이 (can you tell how much I want to be best friends with her).

This story involves four middle school students, each of them enduring personal struggles at home while attending school and trying to complete a group project that goes awry. One boy lives with his grandfather in poverty; another is cast down in his wealthy father’s shadow and fights to escape the life that his father wants him to live.

Look at this. Look at this incredible art that speaks to the feelings of the boy trailing along in his father’s shadow, forced to play soccer to meet his father’s expectations. “I hate soccer…Dad…”

One of the girls constantly suffocates under her mother’s overbearing presence and intervention. The other girl, whose backstory isn’t yet revealed, tries to befriend one of the boys when she recognizes him from a soccer team they had played on several years prior, but she is angrily rebutted. Where will the story go now that they’re all fighting over the group project while dealing with inner turmoil?

It seems like there is potential for love interests to develop later on, but it’s hard to tell at this early stage. 한경찰 작가님이 does an incredible job of weaving many storylines into one plot as in 스핑, so romance or not, this is a webtoon to follow!

“Dreaming Boy, Girl” is my own translation of this new webtoon’s title, although it may pop up on translation sites as something else. As far as I know, there are not yet any English translations but I will update here if I learn of one. As always, please support the webtoon creator by reading on Naver if you can! And follow her Instagram @hedaa2002: